Pages

Thursday, 3 October 2013

The Feel of Goa in Monsoon - Part 3

Day 3 was going to be a rest day for us. Holidays
are ideally meant for lazying around, but for us every holiday becomes
more hectic than usual weekdays because we try to catch up on everything
around that place. This time on my insistence
we had kept this buffer day just for resting and roaming around the
resort property.

Within the Resort

We woke up late. Last night had been a stormy one.
We could feel the force of the stormy sea wind on our cottage doors and
windows. The morning appeared a bit calm but cloudy. Even though it
wasn’t high tide we could spot huge waves crashing
on the rocky bank.

After having breakfast we decided to go for a
stroll on the beach. The weather was pleasant and the sun mellow. The
fishing village was already busy in their daily chores. The lone
fishermen positioned themselves on rock edges with their
fishing wheels and baits. They were using the tiny fishes as baits. It
was quite interesting to watch them reel in the fishes.

Soon hubby got busy in collecting shells. We had
brought a big packet for collecting the shells and our aim was to fill
the packet to the fullest capacity. While he was busy with shells I
waded into the water. The waves were pretty strong
and hitting the rocks with high intensity. I wished I could go deeper
into the water but then seeing the unpredictable nature of them decided
to play nearby the rocky beach. When I had enough and was about to come
out of the water, a big wave came from behind
just as I had lifted my feet to take a step and the unexpected
happened. I somehow managed to stay steady but one of my brand new pair
of Hawaii slippers was washed away by the receding current. I saw it
floating away with the wave and signaled my husband
(a non swimmer) to do something. Obviously I wasn't going to let it go
that easily! But he was very least bothered about it and said its as
good as gone. But I was determined to retrieve it. I saw a big wave
coming towards the shore and that hit the receding
waves, as a result of which the slipper was coming towards the shore
along with the big wave . I was delighted and ready to catch it. But
alas, the wave broke down much before the shore and my poor slipper was
dragged again towards the sea with the receding
waves.

The Slipper Rescue Episode

I saw a fisherman standing at a distant rock and
asked my husband to signal him to catch the slipper with his fishing
rod. he had also noticed the bright pink thing floating away. For the
next 10 minutes it was the fisherman against the
waves. Finally he was able to hook the slipper and threw it in my
direction. I felt extremely obliged to him for this godly act and
blessed him with all my heart. If it was not early morning I bet this
strange act of slipper rescue would have had attracted
a good audience.

After this episode we walked towards a extended big
rocky patch. Usually this place attracted most crowd every evening. But
now there was none. The waves were pretty big around this place and
each impact was almost flooding the rocky patch
for a minute or two. As we were walking we noticed something strange
resting in a small waterhole. When we came near we realized it was some
sort of a fish trapped in the waterhole. In all probability it was washed
ashore by a big wave. Fortunately there was
enough water in the hole so that the fish was totally submerged. But
the sun was so strong that in no time the water was about to vaporize.
The fish had rough spikey skin and seemed like most of the body
comprised of its head. We wanted to take it out of that
hole and send it back to ocean before the water dried up or any
fisherman caught it for lunch. I stood there to keep an eye on it while
hubby started searching for something with which it could be caught.We
still didn't have any idea what the strange looking
fish was. He finally managed to find a torn plastic sack. Suddenly it
struck it that it was a Puffer fish in deflated condition. That made us
very excited. It was the very first time we saw a puffer. But that also
made us a little worried that if we tried
to grab it with the sack it might get tensed and inflate suddenly which
might cause injury to both my hubby and the fish. So we tried to do the
operation rescue in as much calm manner as possible. I tapped the
puffer's head and it simply shrugged a bit and
tried to swim away. Then hubby went into action. He took the sack and
lightly covered the fish before grabbing it with both hands. The fish was
pretty heavy he said. But thankfully he didn't struggle or inflate,
mostly he was too tired after being washed down
by the waves or too frightened to do anything. Hubby then took him to
the waters released the grip. It immediately started to swim and dived
deep into the water. We were happy that we could rescue the fish.

The Puffer Fish

The day was turning out to be more action packed
than we had expected. Two adventures within 20 minutes gave us an
adrenalin rush. We roamed around the rock for some more time, taking
pictures. We then saw a fishing boat approaching the
shore with the day's catch. We walked in their direction. The fishermen
unloaded their catch. One of them drew our attention towards something
else. he asked us to follow him. On one side of the boat we saw was a
huge fish laid down...nearly 4 feet in length.
They said they had caught it today and asked us we we will buy it. We
told them we are tourist and cant buy it. He told that usually when such
big fish were caught it would be sold off to the resort. But when he
had called Nisha (owner) today she said there wasn't any requirement as guests were less; now he was at a loss what to
do with it. He also told us the local name of the fish but I don't
remember it now.

After spending some more time on the beach we
walked back to our cottage. We still had some more time till lunch so
decided to spend the time in the pool. There was hardly anyone in the
resort so we had the pool all to ourselves.

After half an hour we went and bathed and got ready
for another sojourn to the Bogmalo Beach for our lunch. We had retained
the bike for the third day as well. The last lunch at Full Moon shack
was equally delectable as the first day.Post
lunch we visited some of the souvenir shops and I bought some pretty Goan fridge magnets and postcards.

We came back to the resort and had a nice nap and
got up in the evening refreshed. The evening was spent walking on the
beach again till dusk. It started raining in the evening and we had
dinner in our room only.

The next day was when we left for Pune. In the
morning the regular dog friend gave us a visit. I fed him leftover gajar
ka halwa from last night which he relished. We had booked Volvo for the
return journey which was to be boarded from
the Cortalim Junction. We finished our breakfast, completed the check
out formalities and bade a final goodbye to the resort and the sea
before beginning our journey back. The Hotel staff dropped us at the
Cortalim Junction for a hefty fee of Rs. 350. The bus
was 1 hour late it's time. This is one more reason I really hate traveling in Neeta. But since train reservation were full we had no
other option. The return journey was definitely a hellish experience for
me. My motion sickness took over due to the infinite
number of curves and bends on the roads and I had a very bad time. I
even could not enjoy the heavenly beauty of mist covered Amboli ghats
with its infinite waterfalls. By the time I reached Pune I could barely
stand on my feet as I felt so weak due to dehydration
and vomiting.

Minus the return journey everything else was really
nice in this trip. Though not the real spirit of Goa what we experience
we liked it all. But still before signing off I would rate the trip to
Chorla ghats far far higher than the beach
holiday mainly because we love nature more. I wanted to experience Goa
once while staying in the western part of country but next time when we
pack our bags it will be for a forest or any place rich in flora and
fauna rather than sand and sea.

ShareThis

Translate

About Me

Folks, welcome to this small corner of the world which is my kitchen. I am a Bengali which by default makes me a certified connoisseur of food, but most of the time in kitchen I follow my own rules. Being poor at remembering the recipes I end up experimenting a lot with my food and still manage to keep it edible.

I am a software engineer by profession and a writer at heart. I love photography and travelling. Creativity is my forte. I hate being stereotype, so this space won’t be just limited to food ideas and recipes, but a lot more about the day to day unnoticed stories that goes into making that signature dish of yours. My blog is a humble attempt to present our culinary heritage to one and all and document traditional recipes which gets passed on through generations just by word of mouth.